San Siro is a stadium that Jens Petter Hauge will always remember fondly, for what it has brought him in his career so far.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, it is the stadium that turned his life upside down and shaped his path. Last night, just like six years ago when the blond Bodo/Glimt bewitched the Milan directors, he was the star of the show for the Norwegian side.
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Prior to that Europa League play-off, Milan’s scouts had already noticed him, but that goal convinced Paolo Maldini to seize his talent with a lightning strike, sealing the operation within a couple of days.
A happy return
On Tuesday, he returned to San Siro and scored again, this time against Inter, in a ‘personal derby’ against the Rossoneri’s city rivals. He has six goals in the Champions League, one less than Haaland, The same number as Osimhen and Martinelli.
He has two against Tottenham, two against the Nerazzurri, one against Borussia Dortmund and another against Manchester City. Jens Petter Hauge is one of Bodo’s sons and in his spare time, above the Arctic Circle, he goes trout fishing and relaxes.
After leaving his hometown club, he wandered around Europe for a bit and then returned to scoring with the team he grew up with. He scored a couple of goals in Serie A – including a beautiful one against Napoli – won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, and went to Gent.
At the end of the match, Hauge mingled with his team-mates to greet the 3,500 fans who had made the journey to Milan. The small Norwegian ‘yellow wall’ witnessed history and paid homage to their idols.
Hauge is one of them. The son of a city of 50,000 inhabitants perched at the entrance of a fjord, where the airport has only one runway, life is in darkness in winter, people jostle to see the Northern Lights on cloudless days.
The stadium seats 8,000, and where before every match, on the sidelines, the team gathers in a circle. It’s always Berg, the captain, who speaks. Hauge wears the No.10 and is the most talented. With two goals, he dragged little Bodo to the round of 16. San Siro continues to turn his life upside down.
So maldini was right, jph was talented, so was oroghi, it’s just one and another things just didn’t work out back then. More interesting if bodo could advance to next round and go as far as they can to the final.
No my friend Origi has always been a fringe player at every club. Hauge was a talent we should’ve held on to though.
Things didn’t work out because Pioli preferred Rebic & Leao over him. Which is understandable but Rebic could have played the RW which would have given JP a chance… He did good enough when released on the pitch.
Good lad J.P keep it up!
Pioli was a great motivator, but he was useless in nurturing younger players. Hence why Leao, Diaz, Gabbia and Tomori haven’t become world-class players.
Good for him. Let’s trade Leao for Hauge. And take their coach as well.
Such a great feeling to see this lad do well and especially against that trashy team. Enjoyed every minute of it haha 😆